The moon rose brighter in the sky over the glade that was populating one by one with a flourishing elven community. The moonlight here cast a silver and blue glow, one that cast light not equal to the sun, but enough to clearly see by. It made the perfect ambience for a party of all the elves that had come about since Kenzia’s dream two nights ago.
Beneath the boughs of the trees and strewn lanterns, a raucous frolic was underway. The air was filled with the sweet sounds of a mandolin being played deftly by Carlistos, who brought his transformed guitar from home with him. Alisariah casually tapped her music to the tune of the music while she supped on a rich flute of elven wine with the Sylvan queen Astania. They shared tales of past adventures, of villains and vanquished and good times shared in the games of fantasy they’d played before. Before long, their conversation turned to giddy theory-crafting about what fantastical forms the rest of their respective players would be taking in the days to come. Maraya’s ears perked up as she watched Terrania walk up beside her, two goblets in hand as she offered the sea elf a glass. The two toasted and turned to the night’s entertainment with great enthusiasm. At the roots of the great oak in the heart of the town, the Drow matriarch and her handmaiden sparred nude in the moonlight. They dueled with slender silver swords, swaying in towards each other and feinting apart. Their battle was highly choreographed, in truth far more of a dance than a fight, one that ended with Kenzia reeling Jannavie in close and ending their performance with a kiss as the song petered out.
——
Unbeknownst to the elves, a gatecrasher was driving down the freeway as fast as she could to check on her friend. Hannah Tanaka checked her phone at the every red light she got. Every time, she’d expected to see a text, a ringtone, a discord message, anything from Janet. She’d left an extremely worrying voicemail, then started ghosting all of her calls back. It didn’t add up, that wasn’t the Janet she knew.
She pulled up to Janet’s address, hopped out of her car still in business attire from work, and… found a park on the spot that her building used to inhabit. She looked to the buildings at either side. 198 and 202 stood to either side of the copse of trees, yet 200 Arbor St was nowhere to be seen. Hannah’s heart rate soared as she tried to make sense of just what the hall she was seeing. Normally, she’d dismiss the course of action she was considering out of hand as the kind of idiot move the protagonist of a slasher flick would make, but she couldn’t fathom doing anything else. She dug into her glovebox and picked up her emergency flashlight to go running off into the forest. “Hang in there Janet, I’m on my way.” She assured herself. She pulled her dark hair into a bun away from her face and trekked off to face the unknown.
Stepping into the woods might as well have been crossing the threshold of another world. The moon shed brighter light than any full moon she’d ever seen. If anything it was more like the lighting for movie scenes she engineered in the VFX studio she worked at. The air was sweet, smelling of honey and nectar, unsettling as all this was, she hated that she couldn’t deny it was rather intoxicating. Her reverie snapped as she froze in her tracks. A huge gray wolf with piercing yellow eyes stood in her path, yet it did growl at her, it did not get low or prepare to leap or signal its pack. It watched her, with curious, intelligent regard, before going about its business, content to leave the woman alone. Hannah stood there awhile to steel her nerves before moving on, sure enough, she heard something down one of the footpaths through this dense forest. It sounded musical. The melody was pleasant, soothing, hypnotic even. Without consciously realizing it, after just a few steps down the path she was humming the tune, by the time she reached the glade she was dancing to the rhythm.
After everything going on in this forest, she figured she’d reached the peak of impossible. Then she cast her eyes on the party. She, a human, had just obliviously barged in on a party of elven ladies and a lord. Between their shimmering robes and dresses in various cuts, their unbelievable bodies, and the two naked gray elves who had moved on to a far more carnal entertainment for the partygoers, it was like walking through a lucid dream. She took a tentative step back, not sure of what she’d just gotten herself into, sure enough it seemed all eyes were on her. Jannavie stopped for a moment riding her matriarch as she smiled at the familiar face.
“Hannah! What a lovely surprise! I- I almost forgot I called you.” She blushed as she looked down at Kenzia. “I just managed to send off a message before my phone changed and in the excitement I just sort of… forgot about it. Can you find it in you to forgive me my lady?”
“Forgive you? You brought another guest to our soirée! There’s nothing to forgive, that’s our goal in the end.” Kenzia propped herself up and kissed her handmaiden’s cheek reassuringly.
“So it is.” Alisariah echoed, curiously regarding the young woman. “So let her in. Sit, have a drink, enjoy the fire, be merry.” She sipped her wine and glanced at her fellow queens each in turn, knowingly. “Join us.”